Sunday, April 6, 2014

A Simple Tutorial: Lavender Sachets

A while ago, my friend Ruth gifted me a lovely scarf. I wore it a few times (as you know, I love the scarves) but this one, made of organza, always had a bit too much body given all of the walking I do. I found it would untie easily and fluff up towards my face.

Alas, that's no reason to begrudge a lovely fabric. When I started the closet exercise - including reoiling my cedar blocks - I realized that my clothing would benefit from some lavender sachets too. All of the stash fabrics I considered, to construct some new sachets, were a bit dark, or tightly-woven (or both). Then it occurred to me that the organza scarf had the perfect properties. It was breathable AND pretty. And it would see much more use and exposure to me living in a new context.

So I did a bit of sewing and finished with these:

Aren't they pretty? And functional? I used seam binding as ribbon in such a way that you can place these over your hanger hook to keep the lavender fragrance (and its bug-repelling tendencies) close to hanging items.

I gave a few to Scott and made some for my mother, whose birthday is next week. Sorry Ma, if you happen to look at this post in the next 2 days, the secret's out.

I still have enough fabric cut to make about 15 more sachets. And those, once I get a new stock of lavender - will be for me!

How to make these:

In case you're wondering how to make these from a lovely, languishing scarf (or other fabric in your stash)...

Cut a rectangular strip of fabric - approximately 4 by 11 inches.

Fold a hem - wrong side to wrong side of approximately 0.5 inch at each upper (raw) edge (the two narrower of the raw edges).

Press to keep in place.

Top stitch those hems (by hand or machine).

Then fold the fabric in half, right side to right side. (The crease forms the base of the sachet. The wrong sides of the upper hems will be visible.)

Press in place.

Serge or machine or hand stitch the side seams.

Turn right side out.

Fill with fresh lavender.

Use seam binding or very thin/narrow ribbon - or string - to tie around the sachets. Double knot carefully.

All done.

Each one takes about 5 minutes to make using a serger and/or regular machine and there is NO waste. I did not overthink this exercise. I did not make a pattern. Each sachet is slightly different. They are not perfect, but they look very sweet, IMO. And when the lavender loses its scent, all you need to do is open the tie and replace it with new.
So, what do you think?

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